Position of Anakpawis National Political Party on various regional, national, and international issues

Thursday, April 06, 2006

DOJ more of a kangaroo court for gov't critics

FRE KA BEL MOVEMENT NEWS RELEASE

April 6, 2006

DOJ more of a kangaroo court for gov't critics,

Beltran supporters say of junked 'Batasan 6' motion

The Department of Justice is bordering more on a kangaroo court for government critics than as a state dispenser of justice and due process, supporters of Anakpawis Congressman Crispin Beltran said today.

"In its junking of the Motion to Dismiss filed by the lawyers of the six progressive solons (Batasan 6) charged with rebellion, and their insistence on keeping Cong. Beltran illegally in Camp Crame despite humanitarian appeals for his release, the DOJ has unmasked itself as unabashedly biased for Pres. Arroyo and the political repression she is waging," Dennis Maga, Spokesperson of the Free Ka Bel Movement (FKBM) said.

"The DOJ is a degenerating institution under the Arroyo administration. It is becoming more of a kangaroo court for government critics and progressive solons, rather than a state institution tasked to dispense justice and due process," Maga said.

Maga also expressed hopes that the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 137 would tomorrow hear the Omnibus Motion, filed by Beltran's lawyers April 3, pleading to resolve the pending urgent Motion of Release and to allow Beltran to be transferred to a hospital with adequate facilities.

"Ka Bel should be immediately released or be allowed to avail himself of the protective custody of the House of Representatives and be transferred to a hospital with adequate facilities," Maga said.

In response to the DOJ's junking of Motions to inhibit Sec. Raul Gonzales, Zuno, and Prosecutor Emannuel Velasco from the preliminary investigation, to expunge inadmissible evidence, and to dismiss case, the legal counsels of the Batasan 6 have today filed a 50-page Petition with Certiorari before the Court of Appeals (CA).

The Petition prays that the CA set aside the DOJ's actions treating the Batasan 6 as detained persons, to prohibit the Philippine National Police from arresting them illegally or detaining arbitrarily.